Characters are the lifeblood of any movie, and so many mainstream films forget that crucial fact. “Winter’s Bone” was 2010’s top winner at the Sundance film festival, partially because it tells a real world, bitter, brutal and cold blooded narrative in the heart of America, but more likely because of the remarkably strong female performance at its core.
Debra Granik directs the young Jennifer Lawrence as Ree Dolly, a 17-year-old from the Ozarks responsible for her young brother and sister and her medicated and helpless mother. Her father Jessup has jumped bail and is missing after being caught cooking meth, and he has posted their house as his collateral. It quickly becomes Ree’s job to find her dad in the 10 days before his court date if they wish to not be thrown off their land.
Ree’s quest does not take her far, as everywhere a person could possibly disappear to can be found within this small mountain town. The people that refuse to help her or can’t are all neighbors, friends or close and distant relatives.
Whether or not this world Granik has created for Ree to inhabit is believable or not is beside the point. Granik is making a statement about the often over sentimentalized view of these rural communities. When everyone is this close and so much family in breeding has seemingly taken place, tensions run high.
In her sharp, violent and always scolding characters, Granik suggests the seedy underbelly of the Midwest to create a modern day noir, and she furthermore draws powerful themes of insecurity and control that commonly run through neighbors, married couples, men and women and the like.
With this much tension running rampant, Ree is constantly told to stay away from finding out too much about the fate of her father, and as exciting and shocking as some of these moments are, they are smartly never staged as if it were a conspiracy thriller. Yes, there are characters with hidden agendas and secrets that are not intended to be revealed, but “Winter’s Bone” is hardly about story and more accurately about characters and their convictions.
Ree is the strongest of the bunch. She is a mother, teen, friend, sibling and woman all in one, and her personalities are so naturally realized and blended by Lawrence. Showing restraint in her performance, Lawrence puts on a face of pouty desperation to get her through the film, and regardless of how much she says it aloud, we can always sense her struggle and determination.
The tone and pacing of “Winter’s Bone” has so many places to misstep and never does, and the film is actually quite interesting cinematically. There are stark and sudden differences in cinematography throughout the film that would suggest more professional craft and talent than this indie will likely be given credit for.
In a short time, “Winter’s Bone” has grown in popularity immensely. It’s not the sort of indie crowd pleaser that will be viral by year’s end. But it has authentic performances and strong characters that so many people sick of the personalities portrayed in the mainstream are dying to see.
4 stars